SkyClan's Destiny/Chapter 5
Chapter description :Sharpclaw is yowling and clawing upward out of the gorge, followed by Patchfoot. Petalnose and Leafstar join the two cats. Petalnose and Sharpclaw yell at Sagepaw to stay still as his paws slowly lose grip of the cliff he is barely hanging on to. Leafstar glances down at the bottom of the cliff and notice Ebonyclaw and Rockshade glancing up at the dangling cat, but unable to help. Sagepaw lets out a shriek as he proclaims that he can't hold on any longer and falls to the bottom of the cave, laying motionless for all cats around to see. :Leafstar quickly leaps to the critically injured apprentice and sniffs him. Petalnose quickly runs next to her, asking and praying to StarClan to let her son live. Leafstar relieves her worries saying he is just unconscious. Patchfoot caught a glimpse at Sagepaw and quickly ran for Echosong. Petalnose crouches next to her son, pleading for him to wake up, repeating that she is the blame for his accident. Leafstar remembers the time Firestar had told her that forest cats never mentor their own kin and are coming to terms with his point. :Leafstar tells the worried she-cat that it was an accident she had no control of. She glances over her shoulder and sees a band of cats, Sharpclaw, Sparrowpelt, Tinycloud, Ebonyclaw, Rockshade and Shrewtooth making their way to the scene. Sharpclaw begins self-loathing, but Leafstar quickly dismisses his anger but is quickly cut off short by Shrewtooth's shriek, claiming that Sagepaw is dead. Petalnose begins to stare at the tom in horror, and the SkyClan leader quickly shuts him down, telling him to stop terrifying cats who don't know what is happening to the apprentice. Shrewtooth opens his mouth to start yelling more but apologizes and walks away to wet moss into the river. :Leafstar takes a closer look at Sagepaw's limp body and sees that his breathing is becoming steady. After one last examination, she notices that his leg was at an awkward angle, maybe even broken. Echosong quickly approaches and tells everyone to back away. The medicine cat tells Petalnose that she can stay and watch as long as she can compose her emotions. Petalsong agrees and begs her to save her son. Leafstar remembers the amount of loss that Petalsong already has gone through, like the death of her mate Rainfur when the new SkyClan had battled against rats. :As Echosong is running her paws lightly of Sagepaw's fur, he whispers under his breath, Rainfur's name. Petalnose tells him that it is only her, and he replies saying he almost thought he had walked into StarClan. As soon as he attempts to sand, a surge of pain flushes throughout his body. Echosong tells him to stay down, laying one paw on his shoulder. He tells the pained apprentice that he has injured his leg and she needs to repair it. Leafstar ponders on how confident Echosong is with fixing Sagepaw's leg after an easy leaf-bare and no experience with injured legs. :The medicine cat tells Tinycloud to retrieve poppy seeds from her medicine den and asks Rockshade to mimick Sagepaw's laying position. Echosong presses her paws against Rockshade and over Sagepaw as a comparison. The silver tabby she-cat thanks the warrior as he gets up onto his paws. She concludes to those watching near that the apprentice's leg isn't broken but dislocated and tensely says that she will have to put it back in. She tells Sagepaw to bite into a large stick when she moves the bone back into place, and Sagepaw asks her if they can just do it quickly. Echosong bites down on to the young tom's leg and shoves the leg back into its original place, followed by a shriek from Sagepaw after dropping the stick. Moments later, he beings feeling less and less pain and Echosong, along with the rest of the Clan, are proud and relieved from the success of their talented medicine cat. Echosong dips her head and embarrassingly cleans her chest and spots Tinycloud with a head of poppyseeds dangling from her jaws. She takes two seeds from the head and instructs the pale gray apprentice to lick those to numb the pain and help with sleep. Sagepaw thanks her and attempts to walk to her den despite Petalnose's persistence in helping him to the den, picking him up by the scruff and carrying him along. :Sharpclaw comments about their gratitude toward their medicine cat, agreed by Sparrowpelt. Leafstar asked the two cats, however, what Sagepaw was doing, climbing on trees and cliffs away from the normal path. Sharpclaw says he doesn't know and Patchfoot starts shifting uncomfortably. The black-and-white tom tells his leader that it could be his fault that the apprentice got injured. Sharpclaw begins to growl, but Leafstar cuts him to silence. Patchfoot explains that Sagepaw wanted to prove he had blood from the original SkyClan cats by jumping and climbing on high surfaces. Sharpclaw asks him why he believes it is his fault, and Patchfoot confesses that he teased him saying he wasn't a real SkyClan cat. He adds that he never would've thought Sagepaw would get injured, however. Leafstar nods and tells the worried tom that no one would expect any cat to do an action so rash. :Anxiety climbs into the leader's pelt as she thinks about her Clanmate's obsession with ancestry. She calls back to the day Cherrytail and Echosong were comparing their legs and pads to the ancient Clan. Patchfoot breaks the leader's thoughts and apologizes profusely. Leafstar nods and dismisses him. :The anxious leader sat on a high rock waiting for her Clan to gather around the fresh-kill pile. She watches those who witnessed Sagepaw's accident spread the gossip. As talking dies out, Leafstar raises her voice and announces a Clan meeting. Fallowfern's kits run out of the nursery carelessly to watch and the queen references Sagepaws accident so they will be careful. She nods at Waspwhisker as he gets up to patrol the border while the meeting is in session. Lichenfur and Tangle appear from their den and settle down in front of the Rockpile, joined by Mintpaw, Echosong, and Petalnose. Leafstar beings the meeting thanking Echosong from protecting the life of Sagepaw, and the crowd cheers the medicine cat's name. : Leafstar raises her tail to silence the abundance of cheering and tells the cats there is one more announcement. She tells the cats of new SkyClan that they are all cats coming together to revive something lost, and they should be proud to be and to belong where they are. She informs her clan that if there are those who have SkyClan blood inside of them, they are no more important than the rest of the cats in the Clan. The leader notices Patchfoot's uneasiness, as well as some of her other clanmates. She continues her speech by telling her clanmates that she is proud of every cat in the Clan like Clovertail raising healthy kits, Shrewtooth's sharp hearing, Sharpclaw's determination as deputy, and Echosong's talent as a medicine cat. The she-cat looks around her clanmates and notices them talking amongst themselves. Sparrowpelt speaks out from the crowd and proclaims that Firestarhad chose him and Cherrytail because they had inherited their skills from old SkyClan. Fallowfern argues his claim saying that he only chose them because they were the closest cats by. Leafstar quickly silences the clan before a quarrel starts, agreeing with the angered queen. She presses the idea that every cat in this gorge is equal, no matter their decent and StarClan is for them all. Sharpclaw comforts her point, but she notices his dark glance at the daylight warriors. :Waspwhisker breaks the Clan meeting, yelling that there are intruders. The entire Clan looks his way and Leafstar notices a cat tailing the gray-and-white tom, followed by three more cats soon after. Sharpclaw pounders out loud how cats came into the border without anyone noticing. Bouncefire tells the deputy their leader told them to hunt instead. Sharpclaw shot a questioning look at Leafstar. Leafstar's thoughts become angered as she thought thinks about her decisions to set no patrol for the first time. Leafstar tells Patchfoot, Cherrytail, and Sparrowpelt to bring the new cats to her. The she-cat hears Patchfoot's booming yowl announcing that they are trespassing and they must meet their leader. :The cats, still in the gorge from the Clan meeting, sit in silents as the four strange cats make their way into the heart of the Clan. The Clan's tensions grow as the cats walk past. Leafstar jumps down from the Rockpile and comes face to face with the cats. She meets eye to eye with the tallest cat who seemed very satisfied to see her and her Clan. He nods to her saying he's impressed Firestar found them after all. Characters Major *Leafstar Minor *Patchfoot *Petalnose *Sagepaw *Echosong *Shrewtooth *Tinycloud *Sparrowpelt *Cherrytail *Mintpaw *Fallowfern *Waspwhisker *Bouncefire }} Mentioned *Rockshade *Lichenfur *Tangle *Clovertail *Billystorm *Ebonyclaw *Snookpaw *Frecklepaw *Firestar }} Notes and references Category:Super Edition arc Category:SkyClan's Destiny Category:Chapter subpages